KITTERY, Maine — A decision by the Department of Defense to reduce the number of furlough days facing shipyard workers is a positive step, but it doesn’t do enough to prevent painful cuts for local workers, according to the head of the shipyard worker’s union.

Paul O’Connor, president the shipyard’s Metal Trades Council, weighed in Thursday on an announcement by defense officials that civilian shipyard workers will no longer be subjected to a full gamut of 22 furlough days.

Thousands of local workers faced that prospect because of the federal budget cuts taking effect. Shipyard workers are now facing 14 furlough days between June and September.

“That’s the right direction for sure, but it’s still 14 days too many because sequestration is manufactured and not necessary,” O’Connor said.

His comments came shortly after a visit by U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, who was marking Women’s History Month at an event promoting science and technology careers for women. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican, also paid a visit to the shipyard in the afternoon during a swing through the region.

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Ryan McBride/Staff photographer
U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte speaks to the media outside of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Thursday.

In a statement issued Thursday, Shaheen said she is encouraged by the news that the furloughs have been reduced, but agreed that 14 days of unpaid leave is “still too much.”

The cuts are expected to impact as many as 700,000 federal employees, according to information provided by the senator’s office.

“Automatic, across-the-board cuts are not a responsible way to address our debt, and forcing our workers to take unpaid leave is a prime example of the negative impact these cuts will have on American workers and the U.S. economy,” Shaheen said in a prepared statement. “We need to find a long-term deficit deal that responsibly gets our fiscal house in order while also protecting our workers.”

According to defense officials, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made the decision Wednesday, as military service chiefs and defense leaders continued to work through the details, trying to prioritize how they will allocate the more than $10 billion that Congress, in an attempt to take some of the sting out of the across-the-board budget cuts, shifted to operations and maintenance accounts. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter ahead of the public announcement.

While some of the military services initially considered eliminating the furloughs altogether, senior leaders argued that since not all the services could do that, it would be better to treat all civilians across the defense department equally.

The military had been faced with some $43 billion in automatic, across-the-board cuts that kicked in March 1, but lawmakers passed a massive spending bill last week that shifted money around in order to give the Defense Department more flexibility in how it found the savings.Foster’s staff writer Jim Haddadin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.